Please recommend a dual monitor/video card solution!

[BOLt]

Hello! I'll get right to it...

Background:
I currently own a very capable desktop computer with a nice Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor. Due to my multitasking, I've been upgrading my computer on a near constant basis for about a year now. Recently, I decided to upgrade to a dual core processor (an I am about to purchase a used AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ from another Anandtech member). I bought an MSI 7900GS about a month ago and I've got an eVGA 6600GT sitting in an anti-static bag on my desk.

I've also contemplated dual monitors for awhile now, so with that in mind...

Question(s):
1) What size monitor should I get to match the height of my current monitor (and which monitor in particular would you suggest)?
2) If I were to buy a motherboard with two PCI Express slots, can I have my 7900GS offload 100% of its processing to the larger display and the 6600GT to the smaller of the two monitors?
3) How seamlessly can I expect this setup to work with games?
4) What other issues/annoyances can I expect to encounter when running two monitors?
5) Performace-wise, will my computing be affected much by having to power two LCDs?

I do not want an SLI setup, so please don't recommend that I purchase a second 7900GS. I would like to use what I've got right now, aside from the motherboard.

I figure that 2 GB of RAM, a dual core CPU (which will be overclocked), two video cards, and using the two HDDs to distribute HDD access (gaming and OS on one and downloading tasks on the other, for instance) will sufficiently distribute the demand of applications and video to minimize performance choke points.

Thanks for reading and any input will be greatly appreciated!

By the way, as a point of personal interest, would I ever be able to SLI the top 7900GS with the one below it?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If you like your 2005, I would suggest finding another to match. Matching monitors looks so much cleaner than unmatched ones

I have two 2007FPs while my old roommate had a viewsonic 2030b and a 2007FP. His set just looks odd

If you connect the monitors independently to the different videocards, each card will only power its own monitor. Power is a goofy word, but I used it anyway

For games, I think single monitor is the way to go. I don't even know what you'd have to go through to use them both for gaming at once. I just turn one of mine off and set windows to single display before I start gaming.

Annoyances - you'll never want to work on a single display comptuer again

Performance - I only use two monitors for 2d stuff and no problems at all.

Does your 7900GS have dual DVI? You might want to just hook up two monitors straight to it. I have both of mine connected to one card and it works fine.

If you're intending to get games on both at once or something I'm not the person to talk to though heh.

 

[gwag]

1) What size monitor should I get to match the height of my current monitor (and which monitor in particular would you suggest)?
You decide same type would look best
2) If I were to buy a motherboard with two PCI Express slots, can I have my 7900GS offload 100% of its processing to the larger display and the 6600GT to the smaller of the two monitors?
I would just use 1 card for the 2 displays (no sence in wasting like 80watts) there seems to be someting about windows that causes a performance hit when moving a window betweem 2 displays (slightly, and I dont notice it on a mac)

3) How seamlessly can I expect this setup to work with games?
games will show on the primary display (other may go balck when gaming I think it depends on the game). Some games can use both displays and one can sow you the front and one whats behind you or you can use them to increase your field of view but thats no fun because the center is in the middle.
4) What other issues/annoyances can I expect to encounter when running two monitors?
if you keep a folder on the 2nd diplay it can some time revert back to the first display.
5) Performace-wise, will my computing be affected much by having to power two LCDs?
yea if you use programs that can help out from more realestate it will help your productivity greatly i.e. you can have a window maximized on the 2nd display and still drag and drop things to applications, or you dont have to hide what your doing to look for files.
performance wise there should be no real hit.

You dont really state your primary use but I will tell you I dont find it to usefull unless i'm working on a project that it helps out at like creating a website or something.

By the way, as a point of personal interest, would I ever be able to SLI the top 7900GS with the one below it?
my guess is yes, do you have one of the stolen vidoe cards??

 

[BOLt]

Would a 17" Dell UltraSharp be okay? I figured it's about the same height and everything. Two 2005FPWs would be nice, but I think it'll be too wide. That's why I was gonna run my desktop on the 17" and a game on the 20" wide. The 17" UltraSharps are also quite a bit cheaper and I think I could get it on eBay or used on a forum at a fraction of the retail cost.

The reason I was thinking about two video cards is that I don't want my 7900GS burdened with another monitor to display -- especially with Vista coming out soon (I'll be "acquiring" Vista Ultimate, so it'll be rendering the Aero interface and everything). When the 7900GS struggles even now with Oblivion cranked all the way up, I don't want to have to turn down the settings in current games and even more in yet to be released games to compensate for the shared video resources. I don't, however, want the game to show up on both displays. I'd like to be able to see my desktop on the smaller and the game or movie or whatever on the bigger.

To give you an idea of my computer usage: right now I have two explorer windows open (for each of my internal hard drives), Firefox with 10+ tabs open, iTunes (about 70 GB of songs, so it eats RAM), Gaim, PeerGuardian 2.0, uTorrent (5 downloads and one seeding running in parallel), DVD Decrypter, a text file, and Seventeen or Bust (a distributed computing program). This does not include hidden applications like Daemon Tools, and NetDrive. Since I am behind a router right now I do not have an anti-virus or anti-spam program running, however, when I go back to college, Trend Micro PC-Cillin 2006 and Webroot Spy Sweeper will also be running. In addition, when I go back to college in a couple of months, BCDC++ (a P2P application and bandwidth, CPU, and RAM hog when uploading at 20 MB/s+) will be running as well. I also program in Java using Eclipse.

Yes, I have one of the "stolen" video cards. I purchased mine from woot.com. Apparently MSI had indirectly accused woot of stealing the shipment of green PCB 7900GSs. They've since removed woot's name from the page that I linked to in the OP, however.

Weird.

 

[gwag]

a 7900GS will not be burdened by displaying 2 displays unless your using it to display 2 screens while gaming. that card likely clocks its self to 1/2 speed in 2-d mode anyway. unless something is wrong you wont take a hit in gaming.

 

[BOLt]

Originally posted by: gwag
a 7900GS will not be burdened by displaying 2 displays unless your using it to display 2 screens while gaming. that card likely clocks its self to 1/2 speed in 2-d mode anyway. unless something is wrong you wont take a hit in gaming.

Great! If anyone cares to disagree, please speak up, but I like this answer -- it means I get to sell off my 6600GT and recoup some of the 7900GS's cost (it was $150 shipped brand new, in case anyone wondered).

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Keep in mind that you will want the same screen height and vertical resolution between your two monitors or dragging things from one to the other will be really odd.